Mr. McDonnell, whose television ads and website courageously omit the fact that he is a Republican, wrote a Master’s thesis at Regent U. (then called CBN, after Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network) entitled “The Republican Party’s Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of The Decade.”

Mr. McDonnells’s 93-page document was so compelling that Regent awarded him two degrees, one in law, the other in public policy. The thesis called for criminalizing sale of birth control devices to unmarried people, government policy that favors married couples over “cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators,” and said working women and feminists are “detrimental” to the family. The thesis advocated injection of Christian doctrine at all levels of government.

Of course, McDonnell was just a kid when he wrote the thesis. He was only 34 years old.

Latest Rasmussen Poll September 2, 2009 Wednesday taken just after story was released, shows a steady 9 point lead for McDonnell. I guess it didn’t really make a difference. It’s not anything like Allen’s macaca moment.

As I understand it, McDonnell’s lead was cut in half. And as he tries to disown the comments he wrote in black-and-white as a 34-year-old adult, he alienates his core constituenency. This is not going away.

I read the whole thing and it’s pretty standard religious conservative fare. God established the family and the government and gave to each certain authority. God’s intentions for those institutions and the proper sphere of each is known to the writer, who argues for a variety of public policies that will bring things more in conformance with God’s wishes. … God’s solution to this situation is clear, and known to him …. Rational people waste their time arguing with people like that.